Category: health & safety

Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles.

Within 36hrs of landing in JoBurg I found myself atop the Amphitheater cliffs looking down at one of the highest waterfalls in the world.

How did I get here?

It’s easy.

Catch the Baz Bus to Amphitheater backpackers in the northern Drakensberg.

While checking into the hostel, sign up for their most popular guided hike. It’s offered about every 2nd day for about $50 all inclusive.

7:30am departure.

Here’s our guide “Sim” parking one of the hiker shuttle vans at Sentinel car park 2,500m (8,200 ft). This is the only official day hiking trail leading to the top of the Drakensberg escarpment.

Yep. That’s the Sentinel. You cannot climb it without ropes. We’ll skirt the base.

The trail zigzags up towards the big peak. Then traverses right.

Entirely above the treeline, we did not see much in the way of wildlife. Aside from lizards, of course.

It was an easy start with perfect weather.

One short ladder on the ascent.

The crux of the hike is up this gorge.

It’s a 300m scramble. Not too difficult overall.

Atop the Amphitheater cliffs, we stopped for lunch. Our guides were disappointed that clouds obscured the fantastic views.

Note the big birds that stopped for lunch with us.

20min further is the top of Tugela Falls.

The water is quite warm. … I’m told.

Our guide told us that one hiker fell from here on a winter trek. Slipped on the ice.

Finally I called on the old Gods and new to dissipate the clouds.

Everything opened up. And we were shocked to see where we’d been standing so casually.

It’s about 1km down.

The Amphitheatre is widely regarded as one of the most impressive cliff faces on earth, over 5km (3.1mi) in length.

Surprisingly, these cliffs are not much used for BASE jumping and the ilk. Apparently winds are not favourable here.

One girl from Finland had been to Roraima via Venezuela. She said there were definitely similarities with the top of the Tupuis there …

… But many differences too.

The standard route is a Lollypop loop. Rather than backtracking we descended via long ladders.

From the bottom, it was another cliff traverse to regain our original trail.

The vegetation in South Africa is different than what I’m used to. The most interesting plant is this … Pineapple something.

One intensely scenic day. We all left happy.

This New Yorker was on the last 4 days of 2 years of traveling.

Back at the car park we enjoyed a gymnastics performance.

And saw one sleepy snake close to where we parked the vans.

more pics from this trek

I didn’t delete many photos as most up there in the Bergs were cool. 🙂

related – Controversy Between Tugela Falls and Angel Falls as World’s Tallest Waterfall

by site editor Rick McCharles

Already tired of tiny, potentially unsanitary tea house bedrooms, I’d slept in my tent the previous night.

Yep. As I’ve done on my previous Himalayan tea house treks, I carried a tent. Only 2lbs (Hubba) … I like having the back-up plan.

I slept in my tent until 1:20am when guides woke me in a panic. At the next guesthouse campsite, a thief had cut through a tent and stolen a backpack. It contained a Passport, camera and plenty of cash. Everyone insisted that I must move indoors. For my own safety. 😦

Ascending next morning, the valley looked to be narrowing further.

There are people everywhere in this valley. Here Brion was looking for a public toilet. The “blue door”, he was told.

That one wasn’t bad. But as a general rule I’d recommend you avoid Nepali toilets. It’s more sanitary to sit in the woods. … Assuming you can find a good spot.

This was cute. Kids blocking off their home from pack animals.

Here’s some fencing trying to keep out hungry beasts.

Harvested crops are usually stored up high out of reach.

Tradition here is to use ladders to get up and down.

I had the standard Himalayan meal for lunch.

Dal bhat consists of steamed rice and a cooked lentil soup called dal. Potatoes on the side they call “curry”. The spiciest component they call “pickle” (achar). Often greens are included as they were this time.

Porters and guides can rarely be persuaded to eat anything else. It’s dal baht 3 meals a day. They always eat separately and after their clients. In fact, one of the highest priority jobs for any guide is to act as your waiter. They do everything they can to keep you happy and healthy on the Trail.

Pretty pretty.

Steep gorges like this are prone to washout.

Winter loomed. Every home had enough wood stockpiled.

Compared with Everest and Annapurna, there are far more waterfalls on Manaslu.

Impressive too are the many beautiful butterflies.

Everyone is anticipating this adventure to boom over the next few years. We saw many, many guest houses under construction.

We were surprised to get some rain. It should be bone dry in November. … We didn’t realize at the time that this same day it was snowing up on the high Pass.

We slept in Jagat 1410m, a pretty village.

see high resolution photos from this day on flickr

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